SIXTEEN educational institutions headed for the 116th Penn Relays in Philadelphia, USA, from April 22-24 yesterday benefited from $820,000 worth of sponsorship by Telecommunication’s company LIME.

It was the 18th straight year that LIME was contributing to the efforts of Jamaican teams’ participation at the relay carnival.

Wolmers’ Boys’ and Holmwood Technical, who won the National Boys’ and Girls’ Championship titles last month, were among the 15 high schools and one university that collected $50,000 each toward their tour expenses.

Geoff Houston, manager director of LIME, told the Observer that this year’s contribution was just a part of his company’s continued support of youth athletics.

“We’ve been a part of the Jamaican community now for a century and we recognised that sports, and particularly, youth sport, is a significant part of Jamaica’s society, so we’re very pleased just to continue doing whatever we can to invest in the community, to invest in our youth and invest in a kind of activity which generates all the true values that we want to encompass as a company in terms of honesty and genuine competitiveness,” Houston told the Observer.

The handing over ceremony was hosted the Hilton Hotel in Kingston.

“It’s difficult to do one (school) and not the other, because it’s an islandwide participation, and so we didn’t want to be selective, we wanted to help everybody.

“Through Carifta, through Champs and through Penn Relays, I think it’s just going to be a continuation of a thing that we will continue to invest in youth sports for a long time to come and we’re hoping for big things from the people who participate,” he added.

The sponsorship continued LIME’s support for Youth Athletics. Earlier this month, it committed $21 million over the next three years to the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA), making it the main supporter of the country’s junior athletics programme.

Chester McCarthy, manager for Holmwood, told the Observer that LIME’s contribution would go some way in assisting his 24-member delegation, as well as the other schools.

“When we heard we were going to get something (sponsorship) from LIME, we were very grateful and it will definitely go a far way in helping Holmwood to perform well at the Penn Relays and we’re very thankful,” McCarthy said, noting that 18 athletes will represent the school.

He said only two members of the male 4x800m team will not make the trip to Philadelphia, after not being granted American visas.

“The other visas that we were waiting on were granted just today. Based on what I was told, it’s a bit late for the appeal process at this time and so we’ll just have to make do with what we have at this time,” McCarthy added.

The other institutions that benefited from LIME’s sponsorship are: Calabar High, Camperdown High, Campion College, Edwin Allen, Kingston College, Manchester High, Munro College, St Andrew High for Girls, St Goerges College, St Jago High, The Queens School, William Knibb, Vere Technical and the University of Technology.

LIME, which spent $20 million on the recent Carifta Games in the Cayman Islands, as well as $8 million on Boys’ and Girls Champs, will also provide $1000 worth of Just Talk phone cards to each of the 16 schools attending Penn Relays.